Recording medium for storing linking type information and method of processing defective area using the same

ABSTRACT

A recording medium storing linking type information and a method of processing a defective area in the medium. The recording medium stores information indicating that linking is applied immediately after the defective area, distinguishing a linking type which occurs in a general incremental recording mode from a linking type which occurs after the defective area. Defective areas are detected and registered in a predetermined area (recording management data (RMD) area) before user data is recorded or while user data is being recorded in the recording medium having a plurality of continuous basic recording units, such as a digital versatile disc-rewritable (DVD-RW) in which recording and reproducing can be done repeatedly. Linking is not only applied in an incremental recording mode or in a restricted overwrite recording mode, but linking is also applied to an area immediately after the defective area which is registered in the defect list, increasing reliability of the user data. In addition, a test signal such as data, a groove wobble pattern, or a recording mark which has a test pattern, which functions as linking data is recorded in advance in a block immediately after the defective area detected during certification. If the test signal is detected after the defective area, the new user data is recorded immediately after a predetermined number of error correction code (ECC) blocks following the defective area without using linking, reducing the time for recording linking data, which is advantageous to real-time recording.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Korean Application Nos. 99-16462,filed May 8, 1999, 99-16973, filed May 12, 1999 and 99-23947, filed Jun.24, 1999, in the Korean Patent Office, the disclosures of which areincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of optical recording mediahaving continuous basic recording units, and more particularly, to arecording medium for storing linking type information which indicateswhether a linking scheme applies to an area immediately after adefective area and a method of processing a defective area using thesame.

2. Description of the Related Art

Since basic recording units of a digital versatile disc-rewritable(DVD-RW) and a digital versatile-recordable (DVD-R) are positionedcontinuously, contrary to those of a DVD-Random Access Memory (DVD-RAM)which are divided by physical identifier (PID) areas or buffer fields(extra areas allocated to correspond to a requirement for controlling aspindle motor accurately), it is required that a recording-start pointof each basic unit in a DVD-RW is precisely located. The basic recordingunit of the DVD-RAM can be a sector and the basic recording unit of theDVD-RW can be an error correction code (ECC) block.

Since the basic recording units of the DVD-R and the DVD-RW, which havethe same physical formats, are positioned continuously as describedabove, for an incremental recording mode, that is, the mode in whichdata transmission is momentarily discontinued or new data is recordedfollowing the previous data, the DVD-R and the DVD-RW use a linkingscheme in which a predetermined number of bytes (for example, 3 bytes)of a next recording-start point are allocated as a linking area. Inaddition, there are two linking area sizes which are applied inincremental recording; 2 kilobytes and 32 kilobytes.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the linking scheme which occurs in thegeneral incremental recording mode, and shows old data 4, the32-kilobyte linking area 2 and new data 7. Referring to FIG. 1, whenrecording of old data 4 is completed without filling up the basicrecording unit (the ECC block unit in FIG. 1), padding data 5 isrecorded from the remaining portion of the basic recording unit, whereno data is recorded, to a first sector after a sync mark 1. Recording ofthe new user data 7 begins after recording linking data 6 in the32-kilobyte linking area 2 for the incremental recording.

In the case of DVD-RW, when a defective area is registered in adefective area list which is registered in a recording management data(RMD) area, the DVD-RW uses a restricted overwrite recording mode alongwith the linking scheme similar to the incremental recording mode whenrecording actual user data after the registered defective area.Therefore, the current DVD-RW specification only applies a linkingscheme for the incremental recording mode and the restricted overwriterecording mode. The DVD-RW specification does not define specificlinking schemes for processing a defective area, such as defining alinking area after a defective area.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide arecording medium for storing linking type information which indicateswhether linking occurs immediately after a defective area, in therecording medium in which basic recording units are positionedcontinuously.

It is another object to provide a recording medium in which apredetermined number of error correction code (ECC) blocks, which havethe same effect as a linking area, are allocated immediately after adefective area, in the recording medium in which basic recording unitsare positioned continuously.

It is still another object to provide a method of processing a defectivearea in which user data is recorded after allocating a predeterminedlinking area immediately after a defective area according to linkingtype information which indicates whether linking occurs immediatelyafter a defective area in recording.

It is yet still another object to provide a method of processing adefective area in which recording of a user data begins after apredetermined number of ECC blocks following a defective area.

Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth inpart in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious fromthe description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

To achieve the above objectives and other objectives of the presentinvention a recording medium having continuous basic recording unitscomprises a defect management area registering a list of defectiveareas, a linking area allocated immediately after one of the defectiveareas according to a predetermined linking scheme, and a predeterminedarea storing additional information indicating whether the predeterminedlinking scheme is applied to, specified in, or occurs in the linkingarea immediately after the one defective area.

Further, a recording medium having continuous basic recording unitscomprises a predetermined number of error correction code (ECC) blocksallocated to an area immediately after a defective area detected duringcertification and a defective management area registering in a list thedefective area and information on the predetermined number of ECC blocksallocated immediately after the defective area.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent and more readily appreciated from the following description ofthe preferred embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings of which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a linking scheme occurring in a general incrementalrecording mode;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a method of processing defective areaaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates the structure of a data identification (DID) area asan example of storing linking type information according to the presentinvention; and

FIG. 4 illustrates another example of a method of processing defectivearea according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a recording/reproducing apparatus forimplementing the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now made in detail to the present preferred embodimentsof the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the likeelements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order toexplain the present invention by referring to the figures.

In a case where reference signals such as a wobble signal or a landpre-pit (LPP) signal are not generated as in the case of anuncorrectable error, that is, in a case where a large defect existsacross a plurality of tracks, all signals (a wobble signal, an LPPsignal, etc.) are not generated at all when a pick-up unit passesthrough the defective area. In this case, continuous recording becomesimpossible, and, since data must be recorded after the defective area,the same mode as an incremental recording mode is applied.

In a DVD-RW, data is recorded in groove tracks, and information whichindicates physical ECC block numbers is recorded in the form of pre-pitsin land tracks and referred to as the LPP signal. In addition, groovetracks are wobbled with a predetermined frequency.

Therefore, it is necessary to define a new linking scheme, since asdescribed above currently after the defective area a linking schemeoccurs which is defined only for a general incremental recording mode ora restricted overwrite recording mode. Since the linking scheme definedby the DVD-RW specification applies to only an incremental recordingmode and a restricted overwrite recording mode, the new linking schemewould apply to an area immediately after the defective area.

The type of linking immediately after the defective area needs to bedistinguished from the type of linking used in the general incrementalrecording mode and the restricted overwrite recording mode. That is, thelinking in the general incremental recording mode and the restrictedoverwrite recording mode occurs when new data is recorded after stoppingthe recording of as much data as can be recorded at a time. This linkingis not defined in a write-at-once recording mode.

However, according to the present invention the linking occursimmediately after the defective area, and occurs in a situation in whichrecording data as much as can be recorded at a time is not completelyperformed.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a method of processing the defectivearea according to the present invention. During certification, afterregistering a defect list in a recording management data (RMD) area, alinking area is allocated after the defective area, and the new userdata is recorded after the linking area.

The RMD area stores the list of defective areas found while using therecording medium as well as the list of the defective areas found duringcertification. According to the present invention, the RMD area storesthe list of the defective areas found before or during recording of theuser data. At the same time, for example, a data identifier (DID) areaat the beginning of a sector (which can be the ECC block or the sector)where the defective data is included or located stores linking typeinformation which indicates whether or not linking is applied after thedefective area when recording the user data. Then, the new user data isrecorded after applying a linking scheme to the area immediately afterthe defective area. In another example, the basic recording unit storesthe linking type information as additional information, which indicateswhether linking is applied immediately after the defective area and thelinking type information can be referenced or accessed. Using thelinking type information, the recording medium can recognize the linkingdata, thereby differentiating between the linking data and the userdata.

That is, when the defective area 3, which is registered in the list ofdefective areas in the RMD area, is found while recording the user data4, the defective area 3 is skipped without recording the user data. Atthis time, for the defective area 3, optical power beam which is emittedfrom an optical power source such as a laser device is lowered down to alevel that cannot affect recording, for example, under a read powerbeam. Therefore, an optical power source emitting a write power beamduring recording the user data lowers the write power beam upondetecting the defective area 3 so that the lowered power beam does notaffect recording. The linking area 8 immediately after the defectivearea 3 is filled with linking data 9, and the new data 7 begins to berecorded. The size of the linking area 8 occurring immediately after thedefective area 3 may be either 2 KB or 32 KB, however, a size of 2 KB isadvantageous in real time read/write (RTRW) operation.

In the meantime, since linking according to the present invention can befound through detection of the defective areas during certification, thelinking data can be recorded in advance immediately after the detecteddefective area according to a predetermined linking scheme (2 KB or 32KB). At this time, information is recorded in the data type informationin the DID as shown in FIG. 3 indicating that the linking data isrecorded, and the linking type information indicating that linkingoccurs immediately after the defective area is recorded in the linkingtype information in the DID as shown in FIG. 3.

Since padding data (for example, 00h) is recorded in the remainingportion of the basic recording unit, in a padding data area immediatelybefore the defective area, when the basic recording unit is not filledup with the user data, the padding data can be recorded in advance inthe basic recording unit immediately before the defective area. Thispadding data area can be overwritten when recording the actual userdata.

When recording the user data after certification, the linking data isrecorded in advance immediately after the defective area so that theuser data can be recorded immediately after the linking area. Therefore,time for recording the linking data is shortened, and it is advantageousin real-time recording because the user data is recorded immediatelyafter the defective area and the linking area.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of storing the linking type informationaccording to the present invention in the DID area which is allocatedfor each sector and has 4 bytes. Data identification informationincludes sector information and a sector number, and sector informationincludes sector format type, tracking method, reflectivity, linkingtype, area type, data type, and layer number.

Sector format type information of bit position b31 represents constantlinear velocity (CLV) or zone constant linear velocity (ZCLV) asfollows.

0b: CLV format type

1b: Zoned format type, specified for Rewritable discs

Tracking method information of bit position b30 represents pit trackingor groove tracking as follows.

0b: Pit tracking

1b: Groove tracking, specified for Rewritable discs

Reflectivity information of bit position b29 represents whetherreflectivity exceeds 40% or not as follows.

0b: If the reflectivity is greater than 40%

1b: If the reflectivity is less than or equal to 40%.

Area type information of bit position b27 and b26 represents a dataarea, a lead-in area, a lead-out area, or a middle area for a read-onlydisc as follows.

00b: In the data area

01b: In the Lead-in area

10b: In the Lead-out area

11b: In the middle area of read-only discs

Data type information of bit position b25 represents read-only data, orthe linking data as follows.

0b: Read-only data

1b: Linking data

Layer number information of bit position b24 represents layer number ina single layer disc or a dual layer disc as follows.

0b: Layer 0 of dual layer discs or single layer discs

1b: Layer 1 of dual layer discs

According to the present invention, linking type information is definedas follows and recorded, by using b28 which is a reserved bit in thesector information area in conventional methods.

0b: Linking for incremental recording

1b: Linking after defective area

If the linking type information is binary number “0”, it indicateslinking for the incremental recording mode, and if it is binary number“1”, it indicates linking immediately after the defective area. Here,the linking type which occurs in the incremental recording mode or therestricted overwrite recording mode can be referred to as linking typeI, and the linking type which occurs immediately after the defectivearea can be referred to as linking type II.

Therefore, by indicating the linking type in the linking typeinformation of the DID, the general linking type and the linking typeaccording to the present invention can be distinguished. If informationindicating linking immediately after the defective area is included inthe DID of the sector in which linking occurs, when linking occurs inthe sector it can be shown whether the linking occurred during theincremental recording mode, or the restricted overwrite recording mode,and whether the linking occurred immediately after the defective area.In addition, the linking type information can be used for high-speeddata processing in a drive since with the linking type information itcan be shown at once whether recording data is continuously recorded ordivided by the defective area.

The linking scheme which accompanies the defective area according to thepresent invention can be applied to all the recording modes of theDVD-RW, that is, the write-at-one recording mode, the restrictedoverwrite recording mode, and the incremental recording mode.

FIG. 4 illustrates another example of a method of processing thedefective area according to the present invention. Reference number 11is a user data area where old data is recorded, reference number 12 is adefective ECC block, reference number 13 is a predetermined number ofECC blocks allocated immediately after the defective ECC block in orderto have the same effect as the linking area, and reference number 14 isa user data area where new data is recorded.

According to the present invention, by using an area equal to or largerthan 1 ECC block (32 KB) allocated immediately after the defective areadetected in certification, the data area from which recording of the newdata begins can be detected without using the linking scheme. At thistime, the predetermined number of ECC blocks immediately after thedefective area can be registered in the RMD area, and it can be definedthat the new user data area follows the predetermined number of ECCblocks immediately after the defective area according to a predeterminedrule.

In addition, for high speed seek, a reference signal such as a testsignal, data or a recording mark which has predetermined patterns, whichtakes a role of linking data can be recorded in advance in thepredetermined number of ECC block area immediately after the defectivearea.

In recording the actual user data after certification, after a defectivearea is encountered or met, it is determined whether, for example, atest signal is detected. If the test signal is detected in the ECCblocks, which are allocated immediately after the defective area to havethe same effect as the linking area, the new data recording begins inthe new user data area immediately after the predetermined number of ECCblocks following the defective area, which is advantageous in real-timerecording. Since a groove track can be wobbled, the test signal can alsobe a wobble signal.

As described above, in addition to the linking which occurs inincremental recording or restricted overwrite recording, the presentinvention uses linking type information which indicates that linkingoccurs immediately after the defective area. By doing so, even if alarge defect occurs in the recording medium and the reference signalsrequired for recording/reproducing are not generated, the linking schemecan be applied to the area immediately after the defective area, and thenew user data recording can begin, which increases reliability of theuser data, and performs more reliable reproduction.

Further, according to the present invention, a reference signal such asa test signal, data, a groove wobble pattern, or a recording mark whichhas a test pattern, which functions as linking data is recorded inadvance in a block immediately after the defective area detected duringcertification. If, for example, the test signal is detected after thedefective area, the new user data is recorded immediately after thepredetermined number of ECC blocks following the defective area withoutusing linking, reducing the time for recording linking data, which isadvantageous to real-time recording.

Further, a playback apparatus reads information recorded according tothe present invention.

Further, FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a recording/reproducing apparatusfor implementing the present invention. The function of therecording/reproducing apparatus for recording/reproducing A/V(audio/video) data using the recordable and rewriteable recording mediasuch as the DVD-RW, DVD-R and DVD-RAM is largely divided into recordingand reproduction.

During recording, an AV codec and/or a host interface 110compression-codes an externally applied AV signal according to apredetermined compression scheme and supplies size information for thecompressed data. A digital signal processor (DSP) 120 receives thecompressed A/V data supplied from the AV codec and/or the host interface110, adds additional data for error correction code (ECC) processingthereto, and performs modulation using a predetermined modulationscheme. A radio frequency amplifier (RF AMP) 130 converts the modulateddata from the DSP into a radio frequency (RF) signal. Then, a pickup 140records the RF signal supplied from the RF AMP 130 on a disk mounted ona turn table of the pickup 140. A servo unit 150 receives informationnecessary for servo control from a system controller 160 and stablyperforms a servo function for the mounted disk.

During playback of information data stored on the disk, the pickup 140picks up the optical signal from the disk having the information datastored therein, and the information data is extracted from the opticalsignal. The RF AMP 130 converts the optical signal into an RF signal,and extracts the servo signal for performing a servo function, andmodulated data. The DSP 120 demodulates the modulated data supplied fromthe RF AMP 130 corresponding to the modulation scheme used duringmodulation, performs an ECC process to correct errors, and eliminatesadded data. The servo unit 150 receives information necessary for servocontrol from the RF AMP 130 and the system controller 160, and stablyperforms the servo function. The AV codec and/or the host interface 110decodes the compressed A/V data supplied from the DSP 120 to output anA/V signal. The system controller 160 controls the overall system forreproducing and recording the information data from and on the diskmounted on the turn table of the pickup 140.

The system controller 160 and the DSP 120 handle processing the dataduring recording and reproduction, including performing linking schemesin connection with recording and reproducing as well as performinglinking schemes when processing defective areas on the media duringrecording and reproducing. In particular, while recording the data aftercertification, the system controller 160 recognizes one of the defectiveareas registered in the list of defective areas and controls recordingof the data processed by the DSP 120 immediately after the linking area(as specified by the predetermined linking scheme) following the onedefective area.

Although a few preferred embodiments of the present invention have beenshown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the artthat changes may be made in this embodiment without departing from theprinciples and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined inthe claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A recording medium comprising: a defectmanagement area registering a list of defective areas; and a linkingarea allocated for one of the defective areas and after the onedefective area, wherein the linking area comprises a predeterminedpattern.
 2. The recording medium of claim 1, wherein the defectivemanagement area is a recording management data (RMD) area of therecording medium.
 3. The recording medium of claim 1, wherein an opticalpower source emitting a write power beam during recording user datalowers the write power beam upon detecting the defective area so thatthe lowered power beam does not affect recording on the recordingmedium.
 4. The recording medium of claim 1, wherein 2 kilobytes areallocated to the linking area allocated immediately after the defectivearea.
 5. The recording medium of claim 1, wherein 32 kilobytes areallocated to the linking area allocated immediately after the defectivearea.
 6. The recording medium of claim 1, wherein, during certificationbefore recording user data, linking data is recorded in advance in thelinking area allocated immediately after the defective area.
 7. Therecording medium of claim 6, wherein 1 ECC block is allocated to thelinking area allocated immediately after the defective area.
 8. Therecording medium of claim 6, wherein 2 kilobytes or 32 kilobytes areallocated to the linking area allocated immediately after the defectivearea.
 9. The recording medium of claim 1, wherein the linking schemeapplied to the defective area is applied to a restricted overwriterecording mode when the recording media is a digital versatiledisc-rewritable (DVD-RW) disk.